Microsoft this week celebrated the first year of its Office 2010 family of products in the market, noting that the office productivity suite has sold over 30 million units, a record pace that amounts to one copy of Office sold every second. And after just one year in the market, Microsoft's free web-based Office Web Apps (OWA) solution has blown past the Google Docs competition: OWA now has about 50 million active users, Microsoft says, double the 25 million active users Google claims.
"When we released Office 2010 to the world one year ago, our critics weren't easy on us," Microsoft Office Corporate Vice President Takeshi Numoto noted in a blog post marking the milestone. "They said we were heading in the wrong direction by continuing to invest in our desktop applications in addition to the cloud. Even more recently, there've been more predictions of the PC's demise. But the reality is, based on the market results we see in our sales and adoption data, people continue to love Office on the desktop and they're embracing Office in the cloud."
Microsoft's family of Office products consists of the traditional desktop suite, Microsoft Office 2010, various server products such as SharePoint, mobile apps for Windows Phone and other platforms, and now the OWA, which provide free, web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. The company also makes a version of the desktop suite for Mac; the current version is called Office 2011.
According to Microsoft, businesses are deploying Office 2010 five times more quickly than they deployed the previous version, Office 2007. Office 2010 is also the fastest-selling consumer version of Office ever, meaning that more people are buying retail versions of the suite and installing them manually on their PCs.
Looked at more broadly, Microsoft says there are over 750 million active users of all available Office versions worldwide, and over 1 billion instances of Office installed on PCs worldwide. (This includes only Windows PCs, not Macs or web apps.) Either figure represents a huge percentage of the estimated 1.2 billion Windows-based PCs in use worldwide.
Office isn't just successful on the desktop: Microsoft notes that 3 out of 4 companies in the US with over 500 PCs use Exchange as their primary email system, 70 percent of the Fortune 500 use Lync (or the previous version, Communications Server), and over 100 million SharePoint licenses have been sold to date.
Satisfaction with Office is also at an all-time high, something one can't say about lackluster web offerings such as Google Docs. According to Microsoft, 9 out of 10 users say that Office 2010 is the best version of Office ever and 96 percent would recommend it to others.
Looking ahead, Microsoft plans to launch its cloud-based Office productivity solution Office 365 on June 28, providing individuals and businesses of all sizes with cloud-based versions of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync, as well as private versions of the Office Web Apps and mobile device management capabilities. And while Office Web Apps has been updated in meaningful ways a few times over the past year, there's more work to be done there, and one can't help but imagine how successful mobile versions of Office would be on the iPad, iPhone, and Android-based devices. Microsoft so far has refused to comment on such a possibility.
Related Reading:
•Office Web Apps vs. Google Cloud Connect: Which is the Better Solution for Microsoft Office Users?
•Office 365 Enters Public Beta Phase
Monday, June 20, 2011
Office Web Apps vs. Google Cloud Connect: Which is the Better Solution for Microsoft Office Users?
Microsoft is walking an interesting line between the successful but traditional software products of the past—Windows, Office, and so on—and its cloud-based future, which can be seen in such products as Windows Azure, Office 365, and Windows Intune, the cloud-based PC management service. During this time of transition, the company must continue updating and servicing its on-premises solutions while pushing customers, gently, toward more cost-effective and scalable cloud solutions.
This situation is beneficial to customers, since Microsoft often provides an interesting mix of on-premises and hosted solutions, giving customers more choice. So when you look at something like office productivity, you see on-premises products such as Microsoft Office, hosted versions such as the Office Web Apps, and then ancillary solutions such as SharePoint, which also come in both traditional and hosted versions. You can mix and match between these and related solutions, so a customer could provide part of its Exchange infrastructure in house, and part of it could be hosted in the cloud with federation linking the two together for management and integration purposes.
Office is also a great example because it's one of Microsoft's core product lines and a top driver of revenue. In fiscal year 2010, for example, Office revenues represented 30 percent of the company's overall revenues of $62.5 billion, or the same as for Windows. And that fiscal year ended just as Office 2010 was released, a release Microsoft has described as its fastest selling ever at retail.
But we're in this age of transition. And during this time, Microsoft is vulnerable, because users may move on to other hosted office productivity offerings as they make their own transitions to the cloud. One primary competitor here is Google Docs and Google Apps. These solutions haven't received much traction with larger businesses yet, and they won't until they've matured quite a bit. But they're free, and appeal to individuals and very small businesses as a result.
Google, of course, isn't standing still. Recognizing that customers still know and even love Microsoft Office, the company has created various integration tools over the years that bridge the gap between its free and cheap online services and Microsoft's Windows-based software. And this past week, the company delivered a tool called Google Cloud Connect that drives home Google's strategy in this market. Which is: we'll work with what you use today, with an eye toward getting you to migrate away from Office in the future.
It's a good idea. And one that should—and does—alarm Microsoft.
To understand why, it's necessary to examine how Google Cloud Connect differs from the Microsoft approach. Installed on client PCs, Google Cloud Connect is essentially a plug-in that appears as a toolbar in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint 2003, 2007, and 2010. You must logon to a Google account, and then choose sync settings, which can be automatic or manual. When used in the default automatic sync mode, each Office document you create or edit is automatically saved, or synced, in your Google Docs repository as you work. This is itself a powerful bit of functionality, since it provides crucial off-site backups, essentially, of your documents.
Google Cloud Connect also provides basic collaboration capabilities, allowing multiple users to edit a supported document type simultaneously, but, curiously, only using Microsoft's Office applications. That is, you can't use Google's own cloud-based Google Docs tools to work collaboratively with others using Office.
In fact, you can't use Google Docs at all: Documents synced to Google's servers are stored in Microsoft formats, and while you can convert them to something Google understands for later processing, the results are often terrible, with butchered formatting, even with very basic Word 2010 documents.
And like most Google solutions, Cloud Connect isn't exactly enterprise friendly. It needs to be manually installed on a per-PC basis. So it targets the same individuals and very small businesses as other Google products.
What Google Cloud Connect gets right, in my opinion, is the seamless integration with cloud backup. Even if you never intend to use Google Docs, this is a pretty good way to ensure that each document you work with ends up in the cloud, if only for backup purposes. And while there are some application reliability issues—Word has spazzed out on me temporarily a few times this past week—it does get the job done.
Microsoft is making its own play for hosted productivity. And while its Office Web Apps aren't as full-featured as their traditional counterparts—they're not even available offline, for starters—Microsoft is also offering customers ways to integrate its rich, client-side Office suite in useful ways with various cloud services as an interim step.
So what does Microsoft offer? Does it have a credible response to Cloud Connect?
This situation is beneficial to customers, since Microsoft often provides an interesting mix of on-premises and hosted solutions, giving customers more choice. So when you look at something like office productivity, you see on-premises products such as Microsoft Office, hosted versions such as the Office Web Apps, and then ancillary solutions such as SharePoint, which also come in both traditional and hosted versions. You can mix and match between these and related solutions, so a customer could provide part of its Exchange infrastructure in house, and part of it could be hosted in the cloud with federation linking the two together for management and integration purposes.
Office is also a great example because it's one of Microsoft's core product lines and a top driver of revenue. In fiscal year 2010, for example, Office revenues represented 30 percent of the company's overall revenues of $62.5 billion, or the same as for Windows. And that fiscal year ended just as Office 2010 was released, a release Microsoft has described as its fastest selling ever at retail.
But we're in this age of transition. And during this time, Microsoft is vulnerable, because users may move on to other hosted office productivity offerings as they make their own transitions to the cloud. One primary competitor here is Google Docs and Google Apps. These solutions haven't received much traction with larger businesses yet, and they won't until they've matured quite a bit. But they're free, and appeal to individuals and very small businesses as a result.
Google, of course, isn't standing still. Recognizing that customers still know and even love Microsoft Office, the company has created various integration tools over the years that bridge the gap between its free and cheap online services and Microsoft's Windows-based software. And this past week, the company delivered a tool called Google Cloud Connect that drives home Google's strategy in this market. Which is: we'll work with what you use today, with an eye toward getting you to migrate away from Office in the future.
It's a good idea. And one that should—and does—alarm Microsoft.
To understand why, it's necessary to examine how Google Cloud Connect differs from the Microsoft approach. Installed on client PCs, Google Cloud Connect is essentially a plug-in that appears as a toolbar in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint 2003, 2007, and 2010. You must logon to a Google account, and then choose sync settings, which can be automatic or manual. When used in the default automatic sync mode, each Office document you create or edit is automatically saved, or synced, in your Google Docs repository as you work. This is itself a powerful bit of functionality, since it provides crucial off-site backups, essentially, of your documents.
Google Cloud Connect also provides basic collaboration capabilities, allowing multiple users to edit a supported document type simultaneously, but, curiously, only using Microsoft's Office applications. That is, you can't use Google's own cloud-based Google Docs tools to work collaboratively with others using Office.
In fact, you can't use Google Docs at all: Documents synced to Google's servers are stored in Microsoft formats, and while you can convert them to something Google understands for later processing, the results are often terrible, with butchered formatting, even with very basic Word 2010 documents.
And like most Google solutions, Cloud Connect isn't exactly enterprise friendly. It needs to be manually installed on a per-PC basis. So it targets the same individuals and very small businesses as other Google products.
What Google Cloud Connect gets right, in my opinion, is the seamless integration with cloud backup. Even if you never intend to use Google Docs, this is a pretty good way to ensure that each document you work with ends up in the cloud, if only for backup purposes. And while there are some application reliability issues—Word has spazzed out on me temporarily a few times this past week—it does get the job done.
Microsoft is making its own play for hosted productivity. And while its Office Web Apps aren't as full-featured as their traditional counterparts—they're not even available offline, for starters—Microsoft is also offering customers ways to integrate its rich, client-side Office suite in useful ways with various cloud services as an interim step.
So what does Microsoft offer? Does it have a credible response to Cloud Connect?
Office 365 gives firms access to different applications from any location, expert says
Microsoft Office 365 will give companies the capability of using different types of Microsoft applications regardless of where their employees are.
That is according to Tom Warren, writing for winrumours.com, who said that people will be able to access products such as SharePoint and Lync through their desktop, online or via the cloud.
He added that Microsoft Office 365 will also include other collaborative services when it launches later this month, pooling all applications together to make it work.
Microsoft's corporate vice-president of Worldwide Partner Group Jon Roskill said earlier this month that Microsoft Office 365 will be available from June 28th.
Mr Warren told the news provider that Office 365 will provide plenty for businesses and their employees.
"Office 365 provides Office 2010, Exchange, SharePoint and Lync all Online in a cloud-based service," he said.
"The service is a full browser-based solution that incorporates webmail, collaboration and document management."
Outsourcery is the UK's leading Cloud services provider to business.
The company is attending a number of Cloud and unified communications events in 2011. To find out more about these upcoming events, visit www.outsourcery.co.uk/events
That is according to Tom Warren, writing for winrumours.com, who said that people will be able to access products such as SharePoint and Lync through their desktop, online or via the cloud.
He added that Microsoft Office 365 will also include other collaborative services when it launches later this month, pooling all applications together to make it work.
Microsoft's corporate vice-president of Worldwide Partner Group Jon Roskill said earlier this month that Microsoft Office 365 will be available from June 28th.
Mr Warren told the news provider that Office 365 will provide plenty for businesses and their employees.
"Office 365 provides Office 2010, Exchange, SharePoint and Lync all Online in a cloud-based service," he said.
"The service is a full browser-based solution that incorporates webmail, collaboration and document management."
Outsourcery is the UK's leading Cloud services provider to business.
The company is attending a number of Cloud and unified communications events in 2011. To find out more about these upcoming events, visit www.outsourcery.co.uk/events
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Microsoft betting everything on the cloud
Microsoft betting everything on the cloud
By J. Peter Bruzzese
Created 2011-05-25 03:00AM
Microsoft is putting all of its power behind making its Windows Azure cloud offering stable and flexible. From what I've seen, it looks like this strategy will pay off.
I'm not sure I would have been this confident even six months ago, but compelling use cases highlighted at last week's TechEd conference expanded my sense of what is possible in the cloud. One example, a handheld ultrasound unit that utilized Azure on the back end, allowed technicians to perform ultrasounds with just a slate PC and an ultrasound mic. That kind of portability could benefit people all over the world.
[ Get all the details you need on deploying and using Windows 7 in the InfoWorld editors' 21-page Windows 7 Deep Dive PDF special report. | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]
But where Microsoft makes its strongest argument for Azure is in its ability to provide solutions that bridge the gap between the public and private cloud. This can be seen in the development of such Microsoft products as Exchange, where you might have some of your mailboxes on-premises and some in the cloud through Office 365. Having the ability to manage both zones and to move mailboxes between them at will is an attractive pull for shops not yet ready to go all-in with hosted messaging.
Microsoft's System Center, code-named Concero, is an intriguing solution along those lines. System Center allows for deployment, management, monitoring, and provisioning of systems, applications, and services of both public and private cloud resources. I'll be discussing this solution in greater detail in a future column as we get closer to a release date.
Technologies like these demonstrate Microsoft's conviction to own the public cloud. I've often joked that Azure (aka "sky-blue") is a tell as to Microsoft's ambitions: It doesn't just want a cloud, it wants to take up the whole sky.
TechEd 2011 beyond the cloud
TechEd also saw a number of intriguing releases. Small Business Server 2011 Standard is the latest flavor of SBS, but the real focus is on Essentials and how it will tie into Office 365. Stay tuned, but suffice to say Microsoft is working on it. Between SBS, Home Server, and a variety of other solutions, I'd say 2011 is the year of the small business.
MultiPoint Server 2011 is another recent release not too many people know about. To date, it has been promoted as a great way to get a classroom up and running with Windows 7 systems as thin clients connected to a terminal services-like server. The server is easy to set up and has tools that allow teachers to control what their students are doing at any given time. A demonstration at TechEd set minds in motion on what else we can do with this box. Disaster relief seems to be an easy fit for something you can just plop down and operate in minutes.
Among the third-party releases that intrigued me, GSX Monitor stood out as a great tool for monitoring Exchange, SharePoint, Domino, BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, and more. The real-time monitoring dash was easy to work with. The install is apparently agent-less (for basic reporting), and it has all the reporting and analytic tools you would expect from a monitoring solution.
Another intriguing resource is Spoon.net, which lets you launch applications from the cloud without installing them on your desktop. Enterprises can check out Spoon Server (2011 version due June 6); with it, you can simplify app distribution through your organization via a private cloud.
Also of note was Falafel.com's EventBoard, a mobile app for the iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone 7 that made navigating TechEd (traditionally a nightmare task regardless of the location) a breeze. You could browse the sessions you wanted to attend, bookmark sessions, rate them afterward, and more. It included maps to help you get to your sessions as well, and frankly, it was better than the booklet issued to the audience. Obviously every conference is different, so organizers have to contact Falafel.com to get the details. But I can see this as a must for any show.
There was much more to report, but this is a taste.
This article, "Microsoft betting everything on the cloud," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of J. Peter Bruzzese's Enterprise Windows blog and follow the latest developments in Windows at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.
Cloud Computing Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows Azure Cloud computing
By J. Peter Bruzzese
Created 2011-05-25 03:00AM
Microsoft is putting all of its power behind making its Windows Azure cloud offering stable and flexible. From what I've seen, it looks like this strategy will pay off.
I'm not sure I would have been this confident even six months ago, but compelling use cases highlighted at last week's TechEd conference expanded my sense of what is possible in the cloud. One example, a handheld ultrasound unit that utilized Azure on the back end, allowed technicians to perform ultrasounds with just a slate PC and an ultrasound mic. That kind of portability could benefit people all over the world.
[ Get all the details you need on deploying and using Windows 7 in the InfoWorld editors' 21-page Windows 7 Deep Dive PDF special report. | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]
But where Microsoft makes its strongest argument for Azure is in its ability to provide solutions that bridge the gap between the public and private cloud. This can be seen in the development of such Microsoft products as Exchange, where you might have some of your mailboxes on-premises and some in the cloud through Office 365. Having the ability to manage both zones and to move mailboxes between them at will is an attractive pull for shops not yet ready to go all-in with hosted messaging.
Microsoft's System Center, code-named Concero, is an intriguing solution along those lines. System Center allows for deployment, management, monitoring, and provisioning of systems, applications, and services of both public and private cloud resources. I'll be discussing this solution in greater detail in a future column as we get closer to a release date.
Technologies like these demonstrate Microsoft's conviction to own the public cloud. I've often joked that Azure (aka "sky-blue") is a tell as to Microsoft's ambitions: It doesn't just want a cloud, it wants to take up the whole sky.
TechEd 2011 beyond the cloud
TechEd also saw a number of intriguing releases. Small Business Server 2011 Standard is the latest flavor of SBS, but the real focus is on Essentials and how it will tie into Office 365. Stay tuned, but suffice to say Microsoft is working on it. Between SBS, Home Server, and a variety of other solutions, I'd say 2011 is the year of the small business.
MultiPoint Server 2011 is another recent release not too many people know about. To date, it has been promoted as a great way to get a classroom up and running with Windows 7 systems as thin clients connected to a terminal services-like server. The server is easy to set up and has tools that allow teachers to control what their students are doing at any given time. A demonstration at TechEd set minds in motion on what else we can do with this box. Disaster relief seems to be an easy fit for something you can just plop down and operate in minutes.
Among the third-party releases that intrigued me, GSX Monitor stood out as a great tool for monitoring Exchange, SharePoint, Domino, BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, and more. The real-time monitoring dash was easy to work with. The install is apparently agent-less (for basic reporting), and it has all the reporting and analytic tools you would expect from a monitoring solution.
Another intriguing resource is Spoon.net, which lets you launch applications from the cloud without installing them on your desktop. Enterprises can check out Spoon Server (2011 version due June 6); with it, you can simplify app distribution through your organization via a private cloud.
Also of note was Falafel.com's EventBoard, a mobile app for the iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone 7 that made navigating TechEd (traditionally a nightmare task regardless of the location) a breeze. You could browse the sessions you wanted to attend, bookmark sessions, rate them afterward, and more. It included maps to help you get to your sessions as well, and frankly, it was better than the booklet issued to the audience. Obviously every conference is different, so organizers have to contact Falafel.com to get the details. But I can see this as a must for any show.
There was much more to report, but this is a taste.
This article, "Microsoft betting everything on the cloud," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of J. Peter Bruzzese's Enterprise Windows blog and follow the latest developments in Windows at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.
Cloud Computing Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows Azure Cloud computing
Rubicon richt SharePoint Project- en Samenwerkingsomgeving en Document Management in bij het Admiraal De Ruyter Ziekenhuis.
Rubicon richt SharePoint Project- en Samenwerkingsomgeving en Document Management in bij het Admiraal De Ruyter Ziekenhuis.
Rubicon gaat bij het Admiraal De Ruyter Ziekenhuis de Project- en samenwerkingsomgeving en het Document Management verder inrichten met als doel het verhogen van de efficiëntie van de medewerkers.
Vianen, 31-05-2011: Nu het Admiraal De Ruyter Ziekenhuis (ADRZ) de beschikbaarheid van gedigitaliseerde patiëntendossiers op basis van SharePoint 2010 online heeft gerealiseerd, is het tijd voor de volgende stap. In de volgende stap gaat het ADRZ verder met de realisatie van het verhogen van de efficiëntie van de medewerkers door het verder verbeteren van de project- en samenwerkingsomgeving en het inrichten van document management. Het ADRZ heeft hiervoor Rubicon gekozen als haar SharePoint partner. Een leverancier die zowel de IT, functioneel beheer en business aspecten van SharePoint begrijpt en over kan dragen aan het ziekenhuis.
Hiermee voldoet Rubicon aan de wensen die het ADRZ stelt aan een partner met toegevoegde waarde. Rubicon heeft inmiddels bij meerdere zorginstellingen SharePoint oplossingen geïmplementeerd. Op basis van haar SharePoint ZorgPortaal weet Rubicon de juiste functionele vraagstelling van ziekenhuizen te beantwoorden. Rubicon biedt het ADRZ dan ook full service SharePoint dienstverlening.
In 2010 koos het ADRZ voor het SharePoint platform als basis voor het aan zorgprofessionals beschikbaar stellen van gedigitaliseerde patiëntendossiers. Rubicon realiseerde een infrastructuur op basis van een degelijk ontwerp en verzorgde de installatie van de SharePoint 2010 omgeving. Bij het opstellen van het ontwerp is door Rubicon in samenwerking met ADRZ vanaf de start rekening gehouden met toekomstige functionele wensen betreffende dit platform, waardoor vervolgtrajecten als het verbeteren van de project- en samenwerkingsomgeving en het inrichten van document management, goed aansluiten op de bestaande infrastructuur.
Rubicon en het ADRZ hebben een roadmap opgesteld voor de komende jaren. Dit geeft het ziekenhuis de mogelijkheid om het platform in beheersbare stappen binnen ADRZ verder in gebruik te nemen. Door gebruik te maken van functionele domeinen krijgen afdelingen nieuwe en eenvoudigere IT diensten geboden ter ondersteuning van ziekenhuisbrede samenwerking. In de eerste fase van deze roadmap realiseert Rubicon de onderdelen collaboratie, project management, document management en de “Mijn ADRZ” omgeving. Het resultaat hiervan is dat medewerkers beter kunnen samenwerken, elkaar beter kunnen vinden en documenten en informatie eenvoudiger gedeeld en (terug)gevonden kunnen worden.
De samenwerkingsomgeving geeft de organisatie de mogelijkheid om in afdeling overschrijdende teams samen te werken. Het is dé standaard omgeving, waarin plaats is voor gedeelde documenten, taken, een agenda, forum en meer. Dit maakt het voor de gebruikers mogelijk om centraal informatie en kennis te delen. Daarnaast wordt er een project management omgeving ingericht, op basis van het “Rubicon Project Bureau”. Dit laatste is een op Prince2 gebaseerde en gestructureerde omgeving om projectmatig samen te werken, van projectaanvraag tot het automatisch aanmaken van projectsites en dit alles ondersteund door één workflow.
In de eerste fase wil het ADRZ tevens documenten van personen en afdelingen in SharePoint onderbrengen. Hiertoe wordt een documenten centrum ingericht met de gewenste document classificaties van het ADRZ. Hierdoor komen functionaliteiten zoals bijvoorbeeld versiebeheer beschikbaar en wordt een verbetering van de vindbaarheid van documenten gerealiseerd. Hiertoe wordt de Enterprise zoekmachine en Social Tagging ingezet. Beide, standaard functionaliteiten van SharePoint 2010.
“Mijn ADRZ” geeft de gebruiker de mogelijkheid om persoonlijke documenten op te slaan op zijn of haar eigen SharePoint plek. Naast het profiel met een rijke set aan Social Features, heeft Rubicon een aantal webparts toegevoegd, waarmee de gebruiker zijn of haar taken, agenda en emails ook in de browser kan zien.
“Mijn ADRZ” wordt daarmee een centrale plaats waar de medewerker snel via de browser zijn of haar informatie beschikbaar heeft.
Rubicon realiseert elke fase als project en zorgt ervoor dat ieder project vanaf het ontwerp, de realisatie, training van de gebruikers tot aan de overdracht naar de beheerorganisatie goed geregeld wordt.
De realisatie van de diverse onderdelen gebeurt middels een iteratieve aanpak in nauwe samenwerking met de medewerkers van het ziekenhuis. Dit zorgt voor korte communicatielijnen en duidelijke verwachtingen bij zowel het ADRZ als bij Rubicon. Het succes van een project zit volgens Rubicon dan ook grotendeels in de menselijke factor. Daarnaast moeten de oplossingen niet alleen eenvoudig over te dragen zijn naar de gebruikers binnen het ziekenhuis en het werk eenvoudiger maken, maar dienen deze ook beheersbaar te zijn en beheersbaar te blijven voor de IT organisatie van het ziekenhuis.
Over ADRZ
Het Admiraal De Ruyter Ziekenhuis biedt medisch specialistische zorg in Noord- en Midden Zeeland en heeft locaties in Goes, Middelburg, Vlissingen en Zierikzee. Meer informatie vindt u op www.adrz.nl
Over Rubicon
Rubicon is een toonaangevende Microsoft dienstverlener met ruime ervaring in de gezondheidszorg. Middels het inzetten van innovatieve ICT oplossingen maakt Rubicon het voor organisaties mogelijk om de performance inzichtelijk te maken en de efficiency en communicatie te verbeteren. Met een verhoogde service en kwaliteit tot gevolg. Als ICT adviespartner geeft Rubicon zorginstellingen, maar ook organisaties binnen diverse andere branches, toegang tot hoogwaardige kennis en volledige technologische ondersteuning. Voor meer informatie: www.rubicongroup.nl
Rubicon gaat bij het Admiraal De Ruyter Ziekenhuis de Project- en samenwerkingsomgeving en het Document Management verder inrichten met als doel het verhogen van de efficiëntie van de medewerkers.
Vianen, 31-05-2011: Nu het Admiraal De Ruyter Ziekenhuis (ADRZ) de beschikbaarheid van gedigitaliseerde patiëntendossiers op basis van SharePoint 2010 online heeft gerealiseerd, is het tijd voor de volgende stap. In de volgende stap gaat het ADRZ verder met de realisatie van het verhogen van de efficiëntie van de medewerkers door het verder verbeteren van de project- en samenwerkingsomgeving en het inrichten van document management. Het ADRZ heeft hiervoor Rubicon gekozen als haar SharePoint partner. Een leverancier die zowel de IT, functioneel beheer en business aspecten van SharePoint begrijpt en over kan dragen aan het ziekenhuis.
Hiermee voldoet Rubicon aan de wensen die het ADRZ stelt aan een partner met toegevoegde waarde. Rubicon heeft inmiddels bij meerdere zorginstellingen SharePoint oplossingen geïmplementeerd. Op basis van haar SharePoint ZorgPortaal weet Rubicon de juiste functionele vraagstelling van ziekenhuizen te beantwoorden. Rubicon biedt het ADRZ dan ook full service SharePoint dienstverlening.
In 2010 koos het ADRZ voor het SharePoint platform als basis voor het aan zorgprofessionals beschikbaar stellen van gedigitaliseerde patiëntendossiers. Rubicon realiseerde een infrastructuur op basis van een degelijk ontwerp en verzorgde de installatie van de SharePoint 2010 omgeving. Bij het opstellen van het ontwerp is door Rubicon in samenwerking met ADRZ vanaf de start rekening gehouden met toekomstige functionele wensen betreffende dit platform, waardoor vervolgtrajecten als het verbeteren van de project- en samenwerkingsomgeving en het inrichten van document management, goed aansluiten op de bestaande infrastructuur.
Rubicon en het ADRZ hebben een roadmap opgesteld voor de komende jaren. Dit geeft het ziekenhuis de mogelijkheid om het platform in beheersbare stappen binnen ADRZ verder in gebruik te nemen. Door gebruik te maken van functionele domeinen krijgen afdelingen nieuwe en eenvoudigere IT diensten geboden ter ondersteuning van ziekenhuisbrede samenwerking. In de eerste fase van deze roadmap realiseert Rubicon de onderdelen collaboratie, project management, document management en de “Mijn ADRZ” omgeving. Het resultaat hiervan is dat medewerkers beter kunnen samenwerken, elkaar beter kunnen vinden en documenten en informatie eenvoudiger gedeeld en (terug)gevonden kunnen worden.
De samenwerkingsomgeving geeft de organisatie de mogelijkheid om in afdeling overschrijdende teams samen te werken. Het is dé standaard omgeving, waarin plaats is voor gedeelde documenten, taken, een agenda, forum en meer. Dit maakt het voor de gebruikers mogelijk om centraal informatie en kennis te delen. Daarnaast wordt er een project management omgeving ingericht, op basis van het “Rubicon Project Bureau”. Dit laatste is een op Prince2 gebaseerde en gestructureerde omgeving om projectmatig samen te werken, van projectaanvraag tot het automatisch aanmaken van projectsites en dit alles ondersteund door één workflow.
In de eerste fase wil het ADRZ tevens documenten van personen en afdelingen in SharePoint onderbrengen. Hiertoe wordt een documenten centrum ingericht met de gewenste document classificaties van het ADRZ. Hierdoor komen functionaliteiten zoals bijvoorbeeld versiebeheer beschikbaar en wordt een verbetering van de vindbaarheid van documenten gerealiseerd. Hiertoe wordt de Enterprise zoekmachine en Social Tagging ingezet. Beide, standaard functionaliteiten van SharePoint 2010.
“Mijn ADRZ” geeft de gebruiker de mogelijkheid om persoonlijke documenten op te slaan op zijn of haar eigen SharePoint plek. Naast het profiel met een rijke set aan Social Features, heeft Rubicon een aantal webparts toegevoegd, waarmee de gebruiker zijn of haar taken, agenda en emails ook in de browser kan zien.
“Mijn ADRZ” wordt daarmee een centrale plaats waar de medewerker snel via de browser zijn of haar informatie beschikbaar heeft.
Rubicon realiseert elke fase als project en zorgt ervoor dat ieder project vanaf het ontwerp, de realisatie, training van de gebruikers tot aan de overdracht naar de beheerorganisatie goed geregeld wordt.
De realisatie van de diverse onderdelen gebeurt middels een iteratieve aanpak in nauwe samenwerking met de medewerkers van het ziekenhuis. Dit zorgt voor korte communicatielijnen en duidelijke verwachtingen bij zowel het ADRZ als bij Rubicon. Het succes van een project zit volgens Rubicon dan ook grotendeels in de menselijke factor. Daarnaast moeten de oplossingen niet alleen eenvoudig over te dragen zijn naar de gebruikers binnen het ziekenhuis en het werk eenvoudiger maken, maar dienen deze ook beheersbaar te zijn en beheersbaar te blijven voor de IT organisatie van het ziekenhuis.
Over ADRZ
Het Admiraal De Ruyter Ziekenhuis biedt medisch specialistische zorg in Noord- en Midden Zeeland en heeft locaties in Goes, Middelburg, Vlissingen en Zierikzee. Meer informatie vindt u op www.adrz.nl
Over Rubicon
Rubicon is een toonaangevende Microsoft dienstverlener met ruime ervaring in de gezondheidszorg. Middels het inzetten van innovatieve ICT oplossingen maakt Rubicon het voor organisaties mogelijk om de performance inzichtelijk te maken en de efficiency en communicatie te verbeteren. Met een verhoogde service en kwaliteit tot gevolg. Als ICT adviespartner geeft Rubicon zorginstellingen, maar ook organisaties binnen diverse andere branches, toegang tot hoogwaardige kennis en volledige technologische ondersteuning. Voor meer informatie: www.rubicongroup.nl
Friday, June 17, 2011
Collaboration as an Intangible Asset
Collaboration as an Intangible Asset7:37 AM Thursday June 16, 2011
by Robert J. Thomas | Comments (12)
Virtually every tearful Tony Award winner or jubilant NBA Most Valuable Player carries a crumpled wad of paper on which are named the people who "made it all possible." If ego and time allow, the list can be quite long. So it is with most breakthrough innovations and banner financial years.
The point is not to nod in the direction of the "little people," but instead to recognize that the intangible assets an organization has are the product of the hundreds, perhaps the thousands, of "assists" — to extend the basketball metaphor — that usually go unnoticed but without which problems would not get solved, insights would not be generated, and uncertainties would not be vanquished.
Interestingly, intangible assets are all the rage these days on Wall Street. Investors grapple daily in an effort to figure out how to value companies whose accounting assets — things like land, capital, products, and licenses — don't adequately express their true market value. Ask a buy-side analyst why Amazon or Apple fetches the price-earnings multiple they do, and inevitably the conversation turns to things like their ability to innovate, their capacity to capture and grow the best talent, their skill at managing brand and vendor relationships or ecosystems. There is no line on the balance sheet for "ability to innovate" or "skill at managing brand." And even if there were, it would have to be expressed as a probability statement: How likely is Apple to innovate or out-innovate its peers?
Most intangible assets are real but invisible, and the most important invisible ability is the ability (or, perhaps better said, the probability) to collaborate. After all, it's the willingness on the part of people to work together to solve problems when they could just as easily pass them along to someone else that forms the core of most things we call collaboration. It's the decision that someone makes to share an idea or to spend the extra hour helping out — not the regulation or contract that requires it — that usually means the difference between "good enough" and "outstanding."
Marvelous, but if it's invisible, how do you see an intangible asset or collaboration, for that matter? If you can't measure it, how can you manage it?
Fortunately, in recent years, social network analysis (SNA) has emerged as a powerful new way for managers to see the patterns of interaction — information sharing, problem-solving, coaching, and mentoring — that make up the less visible, often informal side of an organization. By asking simple survey questions online and identifying the people with whom they most frequently interact, SNA makes it possible to depict the networks that underlie or exist in parallel to the formal organization charts and process diagrams. Repeated surveys can, over time, reveal changes in networks or in patterns of collaboration — making it possible to assess whether interventions such as reorganization or targeted efforts to improve collaboration (like offsite events, new software/communications tools, or incentive programs) actually have their desired impact. Moreover, targeted questions can reveal different types of collaboration.
Case in point, SNA conducted at Novartis helped reveal a pattern of communication — and the existence of parallel innovation efforts — that made it possible to combine teams before they reached a crucial stall point in the development of a new vaccine. At a major retail bank, early signals of an emerging rift between factions — manifested in very different networks of information sharing — made it possible to save an acquisition before it came apart. And a rapidly growing pharmaceutical manufacturer discovered through network analysis that management bottlenecks were holding back critical decisions and alienating lower level employees.
Fortunately, tools like social network analysis are making it possible to do something more than "water and wait" when it comes to cultivating intangible assets. By utilizing more effective ways to depict social networks, to see change in them as a result of targeted interventions, and to distinguish among the types of collaboration possible, managers are finding that they can grow enterprise value and earn their companies a much richer treatment by investors.
So, the question is: What are the most critical intangible assets in your company? What are you doing to cultivate them? Who is responsible for managing the invisible that creates the intangibles?
Robert J. Thomas is the executive director of the Accenture Institute for High Performance and professor at Brandeis University International Business School. He is the author or co-author of eight books on leadership and organizational change, including Crucibles of Leadership (Harvard Business Press, 2008), Geeks and Geezers (with Warren Bennis, Harvard Business Press, 2001) and Driving Results through Social Networks (with Rob Cross, Jossey-Bass, 2009).
by Robert J. Thomas | Comments (12)
Virtually every tearful Tony Award winner or jubilant NBA Most Valuable Player carries a crumpled wad of paper on which are named the people who "made it all possible." If ego and time allow, the list can be quite long. So it is with most breakthrough innovations and banner financial years.
The point is not to nod in the direction of the "little people," but instead to recognize that the intangible assets an organization has are the product of the hundreds, perhaps the thousands, of "assists" — to extend the basketball metaphor — that usually go unnoticed but without which problems would not get solved, insights would not be generated, and uncertainties would not be vanquished.
Interestingly, intangible assets are all the rage these days on Wall Street. Investors grapple daily in an effort to figure out how to value companies whose accounting assets — things like land, capital, products, and licenses — don't adequately express their true market value. Ask a buy-side analyst why Amazon or Apple fetches the price-earnings multiple they do, and inevitably the conversation turns to things like their ability to innovate, their capacity to capture and grow the best talent, their skill at managing brand and vendor relationships or ecosystems. There is no line on the balance sheet for "ability to innovate" or "skill at managing brand." And even if there were, it would have to be expressed as a probability statement: How likely is Apple to innovate or out-innovate its peers?
Most intangible assets are real but invisible, and the most important invisible ability is the ability (or, perhaps better said, the probability) to collaborate. After all, it's the willingness on the part of people to work together to solve problems when they could just as easily pass them along to someone else that forms the core of most things we call collaboration. It's the decision that someone makes to share an idea or to spend the extra hour helping out — not the regulation or contract that requires it — that usually means the difference between "good enough" and "outstanding."
Marvelous, but if it's invisible, how do you see an intangible asset or collaboration, for that matter? If you can't measure it, how can you manage it?
Fortunately, in recent years, social network analysis (SNA) has emerged as a powerful new way for managers to see the patterns of interaction — information sharing, problem-solving, coaching, and mentoring — that make up the less visible, often informal side of an organization. By asking simple survey questions online and identifying the people with whom they most frequently interact, SNA makes it possible to depict the networks that underlie or exist in parallel to the formal organization charts and process diagrams. Repeated surveys can, over time, reveal changes in networks or in patterns of collaboration — making it possible to assess whether interventions such as reorganization or targeted efforts to improve collaboration (like offsite events, new software/communications tools, or incentive programs) actually have their desired impact. Moreover, targeted questions can reveal different types of collaboration.
Case in point, SNA conducted at Novartis helped reveal a pattern of communication — and the existence of parallel innovation efforts — that made it possible to combine teams before they reached a crucial stall point in the development of a new vaccine. At a major retail bank, early signals of an emerging rift between factions — manifested in very different networks of information sharing — made it possible to save an acquisition before it came apart. And a rapidly growing pharmaceutical manufacturer discovered through network analysis that management bottlenecks were holding back critical decisions and alienating lower level employees.
Fortunately, tools like social network analysis are making it possible to do something more than "water and wait" when it comes to cultivating intangible assets. By utilizing more effective ways to depict social networks, to see change in them as a result of targeted interventions, and to distinguish among the types of collaboration possible, managers are finding that they can grow enterprise value and earn their companies a much richer treatment by investors.
So, the question is: What are the most critical intangible assets in your company? What are you doing to cultivate them? Who is responsible for managing the invisible that creates the intangibles?
Robert J. Thomas is the executive director of the Accenture Institute for High Performance and professor at Brandeis University International Business School. He is the author or co-author of eight books on leadership and organizational change, including Crucibles of Leadership (Harvard Business Press, 2008), Geeks and Geezers (with Warren Bennis, Harvard Business Press, 2001) and Driving Results through Social Networks (with Rob Cross, Jossey-Bass, 2009).
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
AvePoint en Wortell Partner leveren complete SharePoint-oplossingen
Nieuwe overeenkomst breidt levering uit van Sharepoint infrastructuurmanagement-oplossingen van AvePoint en diensten van Wortell in gehele EMEA
LONDEN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 20110601 --
AvePoint, toonaangevend leider in het leveren van infrastructuurmanagementsoftware -oplossingen voor Microsoft SharePoint, heeft vandaag een partnerschapovereenkomst aangekondigd met Wortell, de vooraanstaande consultant en services provider voor Microsoft technologieën. Wortell dat in Nederland is gevestigd, zal dienen als doorverkoper met toegevoegde waarde van AvePoint technologieën, en beide bedrijven zullen samenwerken aan de integratie van producten van AvePoint en diensten van Wortell voor klanten in heel Europa.
(...)
LONDEN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 20110601 --
AvePoint, toonaangevend leider in het leveren van infrastructuurmanagementsoftware -oplossingen voor Microsoft SharePoint, heeft vandaag een partnerschapovereenkomst aangekondigd met Wortell, de vooraanstaande consultant en services provider voor Microsoft technologieën. Wortell dat in Nederland is gevestigd, zal dienen als doorverkoper met toegevoegde waarde van AvePoint technologieën, en beide bedrijven zullen samenwerken aan de integratie van producten van AvePoint en diensten van Wortell voor klanten in heel Europa.
(...)
BDO in zee met Advantive en Microsoft SharePoint 2010
07-06-2011 08:49 • Advantive
BDO heeft aan Advantive de opdracht verstrekt om wereldwijd een uniforme internet- en intranetomgeving in te richten op basis van Microsoft SharePoint 2010. Advantive ontwikkelt een SharePoint framework voor alle landen waarin BDO vertegenwoordigd is. Door middel van dit framework dwingt BDO International uniformiteit af voor inter- en intranetpublicaties.
BDO heeft aan Advantive de opdracht verstrekt om wereldwijd een uniforme internet- en intranetomgeving in te richten op basis van Microsoft SharePoint 2010. Advantive ontwikkelt een SharePoint framework voor alle landen waarin BDO vertegenwoordigd is. Door middel van dit framework dwingt BDO International uniformiteit af voor inter- en intranetpublicaties.
Making Collaboration Work
IDEACAST
The Economics of Mass Collaboration
Featured Guest: Don Tapscott, chairman of nGenera Insight and coauthor of Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World.
Ideacast »
MUST-READS
JUST IN
Six Common Misperceptions about Teamwork
BLOG | J. Richard Hackman | June 7, 2011
A leading expert on teams weighs in on what we're doing wrong.
Collaboration Is Risky. Now, Get on with It.
BLOG | Whitney Johnson | June 7, 2011
To build trust with your collaborator, follow these four steps.
Managing High-Stakes Partners
BLOG | Ben Gomes-Casseres | June 6, 2011
How can you get the most value out of your company's alliances?
Getting Credit for Making Other People Shine
BLOG | Andrea Ovans | June 2, 2011
Try this new approach to compensate teams for collaborating effectively.
The Three Essential Ingredients of Great Collaborations
BLOG | Robert J. Thomas | June 1, 2011
Here's how to get more value from team projects.
How CMOs Build Brands by Collaborating Across Silos
BLOG | David Aaker | May 31, 2011
Exceptional marketing defies product, functional, and geographic boundaries.
India's Decade of Collaboration
BLOG | Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, Prasad Kaipa, Simone Ahuja | May 31, 2011
To work, India's "decade of innovation" must become more.
Collaboration Is a Team Sport
BLOG | Adam Richardson | May 31, 2011
Companies that improve their collaboration also up their innovation.
The "Man on the Moon" Standard
BLOG | Morten Hansen | May 26, 2011
Fifty years later, JFK still sets the standard for getting diverse groups to collaborate through goal-setting.
Create Better, Collaborate Better
BLOG | Dan Burrier | May 25, 2011
The chief innovation officer at Ogilvy & Mather wants you to start collaborating out of the box.
Teams That Only Think They Collaborate
BLOG | Ron Ashkenas | May 24, 2011
Make sure their "collaboration" isn't just a facade for independent workl.
The Conversation Is Over. Long Live the Conversation.
BLOG | David Rock | May 24, 2011
The irony of the social media world is that it's making us less social.
Managing the Double-Edged Sword of Collaboration
BLOG | Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer | May 23, 2011
Collaboration can be the best thing you do at work. The worst, too.
New Ways to Collaborate for Process Improvement
BLOG | Brad Power | May 19, 2011
To innovate across boundaries, share deep knowledge with online tools.
Embedding Collaboration from the Start
BLOG | Jimmy Guterman | May 18, 2011
Here's good advice on how to foster collaboration among employees as soon as they join the business.
How Generation Next Is Rebuilding Japan
BLOG | Nobuo Sato and Mayuka Yamazaki | May 17, 2011
Young Japanese are rallying to create a new future for a battered country.
A Partnership Is Not a Purchase Order
BLOG | Ben Gomes-Casseres | May 16, 2011
To succeed with external collaborations, understand the nature of the beast.
Leading Across Borders? Don't Change a Thing
BLOG | Rajeev Peshawaria | May 16, 2011
Employees in Asia are energized by exactly the same type of manager as those in the U.S.
Getting Collaboration Right
BLOG | Morten T. Hansen and Herminia Ibarra | May 16, 2011
Avoid the two most common traps.
COLLABORATION IN HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
Which Kind of Collaboration Is Right for You?
ARTICLE | Gary P. Pisano and Roberto Verganti | December 1, 2008
The new leaders in innovation will be those who figure out the best way to leverage a network of outsiders.
Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams
ARTICLE | Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson | November 1, 2007
Even the largest and most complex teams can work together effectively if the right conditions are in place.
Want Collaboration? Accept and Actively Manage Conflict
ARTICLE | Jeff Weiss and Jonathan Hughes | March 1, 2005
The quest for harmony and common goals can actually obstruct teamwork. Managers get truly effective collaboration only when they realize that conflict is natural and necessary.
When Internal Collaboration Is Bad for Your Company
ARTICLE | Morten T. Hansen | April 1, 2009
Working across organizational boundaries can create tremendous value—or destroy it.
The Discipline of Teams
ARTICLE | Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith | July 1, 2005
What makes the difference between a team that performs and one that doesn’t?
Group Versus Group: How Alliance Networks Compete
ARTICLE | Benjamin Gomes-Casseres | July 1, 1994
A new form of competition is spreading across global markets: group vs. group. Call them networks, clusters, constellations, or virtual corporations, these groups consist of companies joined together in a larger overarching relationship.
The Economics of Mass Collaboration
Featured Guest: Don Tapscott, chairman of nGenera Insight and coauthor of Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World.
Ideacast »
MUST-READS
JUST IN
Six Common Misperceptions about Teamwork
BLOG | J. Richard Hackman | June 7, 2011
A leading expert on teams weighs in on what we're doing wrong.
Collaboration Is Risky. Now, Get on with It.
BLOG | Whitney Johnson | June 7, 2011
To build trust with your collaborator, follow these four steps.
Managing High-Stakes Partners
BLOG | Ben Gomes-Casseres | June 6, 2011
How can you get the most value out of your company's alliances?
Getting Credit for Making Other People Shine
BLOG | Andrea Ovans | June 2, 2011
Try this new approach to compensate teams for collaborating effectively.
The Three Essential Ingredients of Great Collaborations
BLOG | Robert J. Thomas | June 1, 2011
Here's how to get more value from team projects.
How CMOs Build Brands by Collaborating Across Silos
BLOG | David Aaker | May 31, 2011
Exceptional marketing defies product, functional, and geographic boundaries.
India's Decade of Collaboration
BLOG | Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, Prasad Kaipa, Simone Ahuja | May 31, 2011
To work, India's "decade of innovation" must become more.
Collaboration Is a Team Sport
BLOG | Adam Richardson | May 31, 2011
Companies that improve their collaboration also up their innovation.
The "Man on the Moon" Standard
BLOG | Morten Hansen | May 26, 2011
Fifty years later, JFK still sets the standard for getting diverse groups to collaborate through goal-setting.
Create Better, Collaborate Better
BLOG | Dan Burrier | May 25, 2011
The chief innovation officer at Ogilvy & Mather wants you to start collaborating out of the box.
Teams That Only Think They Collaborate
BLOG | Ron Ashkenas | May 24, 2011
Make sure their "collaboration" isn't just a facade for independent workl.
The Conversation Is Over. Long Live the Conversation.
BLOG | David Rock | May 24, 2011
The irony of the social media world is that it's making us less social.
Managing the Double-Edged Sword of Collaboration
BLOG | Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer | May 23, 2011
Collaboration can be the best thing you do at work. The worst, too.
New Ways to Collaborate for Process Improvement
BLOG | Brad Power | May 19, 2011
To innovate across boundaries, share deep knowledge with online tools.
Embedding Collaboration from the Start
BLOG | Jimmy Guterman | May 18, 2011
Here's good advice on how to foster collaboration among employees as soon as they join the business.
How Generation Next Is Rebuilding Japan
BLOG | Nobuo Sato and Mayuka Yamazaki | May 17, 2011
Young Japanese are rallying to create a new future for a battered country.
A Partnership Is Not a Purchase Order
BLOG | Ben Gomes-Casseres | May 16, 2011
To succeed with external collaborations, understand the nature of the beast.
Leading Across Borders? Don't Change a Thing
BLOG | Rajeev Peshawaria | May 16, 2011
Employees in Asia are energized by exactly the same type of manager as those in the U.S.
Getting Collaboration Right
BLOG | Morten T. Hansen and Herminia Ibarra | May 16, 2011
Avoid the two most common traps.
COLLABORATION IN HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
Which Kind of Collaboration Is Right for You?
ARTICLE | Gary P. Pisano and Roberto Verganti | December 1, 2008
The new leaders in innovation will be those who figure out the best way to leverage a network of outsiders.
Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams
ARTICLE | Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson | November 1, 2007
Even the largest and most complex teams can work together effectively if the right conditions are in place.
Want Collaboration? Accept and Actively Manage Conflict
ARTICLE | Jeff Weiss and Jonathan Hughes | March 1, 2005
The quest for harmony and common goals can actually obstruct teamwork. Managers get truly effective collaboration only when they realize that conflict is natural and necessary.
When Internal Collaboration Is Bad for Your Company
ARTICLE | Morten T. Hansen | April 1, 2009
Working across organizational boundaries can create tremendous value—or destroy it.
The Discipline of Teams
ARTICLE | Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith | July 1, 2005
What makes the difference between a team that performs and one that doesn’t?
Group Versus Group: How Alliance Networks Compete
ARTICLE | Benjamin Gomes-Casseres | July 1, 1994
A new form of competition is spreading across global markets: group vs. group. Call them networks, clusters, constellations, or virtual corporations, these groups consist of companies joined together in a larger overarching relationship.
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Groupon’s European allies in the clone wars
Groupon’s European allies in the clone wars
June 3, 2011 9:20 am by Tim Bradshaw
Groupon’s swift international expansion has been “critical” to its vertiginous growth rate. In the first quarter of 2011, 54 per cent of its revenue came from outside the US.
Maintaining that growth will be a vital part of its pitch to potential investors ahead of its initial public offering.
A trio of German internet entrepreneurs have played a key role for Groupon overseas: the Samwer brothers.
Groupon’s acquisition of CityDeal, the Samwers’ daily deals service, last year marked the beginning of its push beyond America.
Oliver, Marc and Alexander Samwer are often accused of taking the best Silicon Valley ideas – from EBay to Airbnb – and launching them in Europe. And as the founders of Jamba, they must shoulder at least some of the blame for the Crazy Frog ringtone craze.
But even if there is some truth to the copycat allegations, it’s an approach to business which has proven very, very profitable for the Samwers.
Alando, their first business in 1999, was an auction site which sold to Ebay for $50m within four months of its founding. In the mid-2000s, they backed MyVideo, a German site similar to YouTube, and StudiVZ, a German Facebook copycat sold for $100m.
In the last few months, they launched Wimdu, a private rentals marketplace akin to Airbnb, the US site that is attracting a $1bn valuation.
But their European Founders Fund has also made canny investments in the American “originals”, including Facebook and Linkedin.
Groupon faces an ongoing attack of the clones. Everyone from Facebook, Amazon and Google to Time Out magazine and a thousand tiny start-ups have seen its 1,357 per cent revenue growth (year on year for the first quarter) and tried to take a bit of it. Groupon says many have thrived by picking up the deals from merchants it has turned down. In such a competitive environment, having a little of the Samwers’ expertise in-house may be no bad thing.
Oliver and Marc Samwer founded CityDeal in Berlin in late 2009, a year after Groupon, sending out its first discount e-mail in January last year.
By May 2010, CityDeal had already attracted 1.9m subscribers in 80 local markets. Groupon, which had recently been valued at $1.3bn, swooped, buying the six-month-old company for a rumoured $100m. It was Groupon’s first move outside the US.
Groupon’s S-1 IPO filing reveals that CityDeal was bought largely in Groupon stock. It went on to make a further eight international acquisitions last year, for which it recorded a $204.2m charge, relating to the issue of shares to buy Citydeal and other related expenses.
The deal has worked out well, instantly giving Groupon a presence in major markets such as London, Berlin and Paris. Groupon now has operations in 38 countries, which – coupled with growth at home – added 79.7m million new subscribers in the year to March 31, 2011. International revenues went from zero to $265m during 2010, reaching $347m in the first quarter of 2011.
The Samwers are still very much involved in Groupon. Their Rocket Internet holding company owns 10 per cent of Groupon’s Chinese joint venture with Tencent, the internet giant, and Yunfeng, a local VC fund.
They also own around 10 per cent of Groupon voting shares and give over half their time to unpaid “consulting” services, for which Oliver Samwer received $0.1m in expenses and travel compensation last year, while Marc collected “less than $0.1m”
However, the Samwer brothers may already be looking to their next venture.
Groupon’s S-1 shows that its consulting agreements with them expire in October. In addition, “entities affiliated with CityDeal Management UG” have already redeemed shares worth $170m prior to the IPO.
With its Chinese venture already hitting stormy waters, Groupon warns of the Samwers’ looming departure: “We can make no assurances that the loss of their services will not disrupt our international operations or have an adverse effect on our ability to grow our international business.”
Tags: groupon, IPO, samwer brothers
Posted in Commerce, Digital media, Europe, Internet, Social, Tech | Permalink
June 3, 2011 9:20 am by Tim Bradshaw
Groupon’s swift international expansion has been “critical” to its vertiginous growth rate. In the first quarter of 2011, 54 per cent of its revenue came from outside the US.
Maintaining that growth will be a vital part of its pitch to potential investors ahead of its initial public offering.
A trio of German internet entrepreneurs have played a key role for Groupon overseas: the Samwer brothers.
Groupon’s acquisition of CityDeal, the Samwers’ daily deals service, last year marked the beginning of its push beyond America.
Oliver, Marc and Alexander Samwer are often accused of taking the best Silicon Valley ideas – from EBay to Airbnb – and launching them in Europe. And as the founders of Jamba, they must shoulder at least some of the blame for the Crazy Frog ringtone craze.
But even if there is some truth to the copycat allegations, it’s an approach to business which has proven very, very profitable for the Samwers.
Alando, their first business in 1999, was an auction site which sold to Ebay for $50m within four months of its founding. In the mid-2000s, they backed MyVideo, a German site similar to YouTube, and StudiVZ, a German Facebook copycat sold for $100m.
In the last few months, they launched Wimdu, a private rentals marketplace akin to Airbnb, the US site that is attracting a $1bn valuation.
But their European Founders Fund has also made canny investments in the American “originals”, including Facebook and Linkedin.
Groupon faces an ongoing attack of the clones. Everyone from Facebook, Amazon and Google to Time Out magazine and a thousand tiny start-ups have seen its 1,357 per cent revenue growth (year on year for the first quarter) and tried to take a bit of it. Groupon says many have thrived by picking up the deals from merchants it has turned down. In such a competitive environment, having a little of the Samwers’ expertise in-house may be no bad thing.
Oliver and Marc Samwer founded CityDeal in Berlin in late 2009, a year after Groupon, sending out its first discount e-mail in January last year.
By May 2010, CityDeal had already attracted 1.9m subscribers in 80 local markets. Groupon, which had recently been valued at $1.3bn, swooped, buying the six-month-old company for a rumoured $100m. It was Groupon’s first move outside the US.
Groupon’s S-1 IPO filing reveals that CityDeal was bought largely in Groupon stock. It went on to make a further eight international acquisitions last year, for which it recorded a $204.2m charge, relating to the issue of shares to buy Citydeal and other related expenses.
The deal has worked out well, instantly giving Groupon a presence in major markets such as London, Berlin and Paris. Groupon now has operations in 38 countries, which – coupled with growth at home – added 79.7m million new subscribers in the year to March 31, 2011. International revenues went from zero to $265m during 2010, reaching $347m in the first quarter of 2011.
The Samwers are still very much involved in Groupon. Their Rocket Internet holding company owns 10 per cent of Groupon’s Chinese joint venture with Tencent, the internet giant, and Yunfeng, a local VC fund.
They also own around 10 per cent of Groupon voting shares and give over half their time to unpaid “consulting” services, for which Oliver Samwer received $0.1m in expenses and travel compensation last year, while Marc collected “less than $0.1m”
However, the Samwer brothers may already be looking to their next venture.
Groupon’s S-1 shows that its consulting agreements with them expire in October. In addition, “entities affiliated with CityDeal Management UG” have already redeemed shares worth $170m prior to the IPO.
With its Chinese venture already hitting stormy waters, Groupon warns of the Samwers’ looming departure: “We can make no assurances that the loss of their services will not disrupt our international operations or have an adverse effect on our ability to grow our international business.”
Tags: groupon, IPO, samwer brothers
Posted in Commerce, Digital media, Europe, Internet, Social, Tech | Permalink
Online computing: The crowded cloud
Online computing: The crowded cloud
By Richard Waters, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Joseph Menn
Published: June 3 2011 22:30 | Last updated: June 3 2011 22:30
You want to send the photograph you’ve just taken to a relative but find you don’t know how to get it off your phone. You have work to finish at home this weekend – but the file you need is inaccessible, stuck on the hard drive in the office. That track you want to play in the car? It’s on the iPod, which you’ve left at home.
Such frustrations are increasingly a feature of everyday life. As the devices on which to view, work on or listen to digital data proliferate, a chasm has opened up between their liberating possibilities and the practical realities. Organising a growing mountain of personal information and media has become, in many instances, a chore.
Much personal information already lives online, whether on social networks such as Facebook, or on e-mail services such as Gmail and Hotmail. But the full potential of an online existence – a life spent in “the cloud”, to use the technology industry’s latest terminology – remains unfulfilled.
It is into this half-formed world that Steve Jobs, the consumer tech industry’s most closely watched taste maker, is about to step. On Monday, the Apple chief executive will appear at the US company’s annual developer conference to show off the latest software advances. Among them: the iCloud.
The details, as with all Apple announcements, are subject to intense speculation in the tech and media industries. The iPod, iPhone and iPad have transformed the company’s fortunes in the past decade. Expectations are now high that Mr Jobs will apply his knack for creating highly intuitive consumer technology to the problems of managing digital information across multiple devices.
Even before Mr Jobs takes the stage in San Francisco, at least one important element is clear. All four major music labels have signed up to iCloud, to allow customers of Apple’s iTunes store to listen to digital music they already own directly over the internet rather than downloading it to each of their devices separately.
The iCloud brand, however, has already stirred up bigger expectations than this. Many in the industry hope Mr Jobs will confer Apple’s seal of approval on an approach to online computing that other tech companies have pushed far more aggressively, though with mixed success.
“Apple adopting the word ‘cloud’ as central to what they are doing is very helpful to us,” says Steve Perlman, a former Apple executive and now head of an online gaming company.
The move will also sharpen growing competition between a handful of internet companies racing to stake out the medium. Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, said this week that a “Gang of Four” was setting the pace, with Apple, Amazon and Facebook joining the search company in redefining how consumers use digital technology.
Yet despite Mr Jobs’ outsized influence in consumer technology, he is anything but a leader when it comes to the cloud. Services such as Spotify in Europe and Pandora in the US have set the pace by enabling listeners to stream music, listening over the internet without downloading.
Apple has also fallen behind in bringing video to the web. US-based services such as Netflix and Hulu have proved more successful in getting movies and television shows to a large online audience.
In other services, too, Apple is lagging behind. From Facebook’s dominance of social networking to Google’s online document, photo-sharing and Gmail services, consumers have learnt to entrust large amounts of personal data to other online companies.
According to advocates, the next phase of the consumer cloud has an overpowering appeal: the convenience that comes from making all types of digital content available on any device. This attraction has so far outweighed concerns about the potential risks to privacy and security arising from letting personal data flow far beyond the user’s own hard drive.
“No one wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I wish I had more stuff in the cloud,’ ” says Brian Hall, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Live and Internet Explorer businesses. “But if you tell them they can [gain access to] it on all their PCs and phones, then they get it.”
The concept may be simple but it is proving hard to make user-friendly. The crucial thing, says Mr Hall, is to make it easy to “synch” or move data from personal devices into the cloud; connect it with other services a consumer uses; and to make it all accessible from any device. “No one has done that well yet,” says Mr Hall.
Apple has struggled to find a big market for MobileMe, its attempt at synching data between devices. But there is hope in tech circles that Mr Jobs, who has succeeded before in making consumer tech intuitive and easy to use, will again show the way.
The impact is likely to be seen first in media, where content owners feel iTunes accounts that number in excess of 200m give Apple more influence over digital consumers than any rival.
The media industry is poised between hope and anxiety about the cloud, which could herald the latest sweeping change to their customers’ behaviour. On the one hand, executives see it as one of the first products of the digital age with the power to enhance their revenues rather than disrupt them.
“There are only so many movies you can store on your laptop,” said Bob Iger, Disney’s chief executive, this week. “If we give people the ability to buy a lot more because they can store a lot more ... I think that’s fantastic.”
Sir Howard Stringer, his counterpart at Japanese consumer electronics group Sony, displayed similar optimism last month, telling reporters: “All the big American companies, whether it be Amazon or Apple or Microsoft, recognise that that’s the delivery system that the customer wants.”
More media content companies see the cloud as an opportunity rather than a threat, says Chris Vollmer of the management consultancy Booz & Company. The large cheques Netflix has written for content, the prospect of new distribution markets, and signs cloud services limit piracy have all raised the industry’s hopes, he says.
. . .
The risks of the cloud cast a shadow on industry optimism, however. Sony and users of the network attached to its PlayStation console discovered the threats to security in April, when a hacking attack forced the company to suspend the service.
Furthermore, the full impact of this approach to computing on how consumers will gain access to media, and crucially how they will want to pay – if at all – is as yet only fuzzily understood. One risk, some in the industry say, is that it will accelerate the trend for consumers to rent rather than buy media and entertainment products and services. This has hurt sellers of CDs, DVDs and other physical media. Another big question facing media companies is the influence of a handful of online platform companies over their ability to reach – and charge – their customers.
For now, the scramble by these platforms for content has handed power to the media companies, though. The land grab under way in cloud computing “bodes well” for content owners’ pricing power, says Anthony DiClemente, an analyst at Barclays Capital.
One indication is the music industry’s warm reaction to Apple’s pending cloud music service, which has already prompted Amazon and Google to rush out similar services of their own, though they have yet to gain approval from the music industry. Labels and publishers hope to use Apple’s terms, which will give them 70 per cent of iCloud’s music revenues, as a template in negotiations with Amazon and Google.
Shahid Khan of MediaMorph, an industry consultancy, predicts content owners will preserve the upper hand in the cloud, and that platform owners face the bigger problem in making money. Google’s record of alienating content owners would harm its prospects, while the sums Amazon and Netflix must pay for content would make their ambitions “challenging”, he said. Only Apple, with its powerful ecosystem of iPhones, iPads and other devices, was likely to retain its bargaining power.
“Near term, especially in music, Apple sits in a Walmart-like position in terms of its digital retail market leadership,” says Mr Vollmer.
Yet even if this proves correct, Apple still faces a profound challenge to its way of doing business: the desire of consumers to access their media and personal data on any device – whether or not it bears an Apple logo.
And media companies show little willingness to let technology companies use their products to lock consumers into their services. Interoperability between online services is important, said Disney’s Mr Iger, so that consumers will be able to move their libraries from one cloud to another without difficulty.
“If someone wanted to corner a market, and a connected platform, in the long term I think it would be impractical,” says Mr Perlman, whose OnLive games service is one of many upstarts that are gambling on being able to get unrestricted access to consumers on all manner of devices.
As in other areas of consumer technology, however, it would not do to underestimate Apple.
Additional reporting by David Gelles
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
By Richard Waters, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Joseph Menn
Published: June 3 2011 22:30 | Last updated: June 3 2011 22:30
You want to send the photograph you’ve just taken to a relative but find you don’t know how to get it off your phone. You have work to finish at home this weekend – but the file you need is inaccessible, stuck on the hard drive in the office. That track you want to play in the car? It’s on the iPod, which you’ve left at home.
Such frustrations are increasingly a feature of everyday life. As the devices on which to view, work on or listen to digital data proliferate, a chasm has opened up between their liberating possibilities and the practical realities. Organising a growing mountain of personal information and media has become, in many instances, a chore.
Much personal information already lives online, whether on social networks such as Facebook, or on e-mail services such as Gmail and Hotmail. But the full potential of an online existence – a life spent in “the cloud”, to use the technology industry’s latest terminology – remains unfulfilled.
It is into this half-formed world that Steve Jobs, the consumer tech industry’s most closely watched taste maker, is about to step. On Monday, the Apple chief executive will appear at the US company’s annual developer conference to show off the latest software advances. Among them: the iCloud.
The details, as with all Apple announcements, are subject to intense speculation in the tech and media industries. The iPod, iPhone and iPad have transformed the company’s fortunes in the past decade. Expectations are now high that Mr Jobs will apply his knack for creating highly intuitive consumer technology to the problems of managing digital information across multiple devices.
Even before Mr Jobs takes the stage in San Francisco, at least one important element is clear. All four major music labels have signed up to iCloud, to allow customers of Apple’s iTunes store to listen to digital music they already own directly over the internet rather than downloading it to each of their devices separately.
The iCloud brand, however, has already stirred up bigger expectations than this. Many in the industry hope Mr Jobs will confer Apple’s seal of approval on an approach to online computing that other tech companies have pushed far more aggressively, though with mixed success.
“Apple adopting the word ‘cloud’ as central to what they are doing is very helpful to us,” says Steve Perlman, a former Apple executive and now head of an online gaming company.
The move will also sharpen growing competition between a handful of internet companies racing to stake out the medium. Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, said this week that a “Gang of Four” was setting the pace, with Apple, Amazon and Facebook joining the search company in redefining how consumers use digital technology.
Yet despite Mr Jobs’ outsized influence in consumer technology, he is anything but a leader when it comes to the cloud. Services such as Spotify in Europe and Pandora in the US have set the pace by enabling listeners to stream music, listening over the internet without downloading.
Apple has also fallen behind in bringing video to the web. US-based services such as Netflix and Hulu have proved more successful in getting movies and television shows to a large online audience.
In other services, too, Apple is lagging behind. From Facebook’s dominance of social networking to Google’s online document, photo-sharing and Gmail services, consumers have learnt to entrust large amounts of personal data to other online companies.
According to advocates, the next phase of the consumer cloud has an overpowering appeal: the convenience that comes from making all types of digital content available on any device. This attraction has so far outweighed concerns about the potential risks to privacy and security arising from letting personal data flow far beyond the user’s own hard drive.
“No one wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I wish I had more stuff in the cloud,’ ” says Brian Hall, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Live and Internet Explorer businesses. “But if you tell them they can [gain access to] it on all their PCs and phones, then they get it.”
The concept may be simple but it is proving hard to make user-friendly. The crucial thing, says Mr Hall, is to make it easy to “synch” or move data from personal devices into the cloud; connect it with other services a consumer uses; and to make it all accessible from any device. “No one has done that well yet,” says Mr Hall.
Apple has struggled to find a big market for MobileMe, its attempt at synching data between devices. But there is hope in tech circles that Mr Jobs, who has succeeded before in making consumer tech intuitive and easy to use, will again show the way.
The impact is likely to be seen first in media, where content owners feel iTunes accounts that number in excess of 200m give Apple more influence over digital consumers than any rival.
The media industry is poised between hope and anxiety about the cloud, which could herald the latest sweeping change to their customers’ behaviour. On the one hand, executives see it as one of the first products of the digital age with the power to enhance their revenues rather than disrupt them.
“There are only so many movies you can store on your laptop,” said Bob Iger, Disney’s chief executive, this week. “If we give people the ability to buy a lot more because they can store a lot more ... I think that’s fantastic.”
Sir Howard Stringer, his counterpart at Japanese consumer electronics group Sony, displayed similar optimism last month, telling reporters: “All the big American companies, whether it be Amazon or Apple or Microsoft, recognise that that’s the delivery system that the customer wants.”
More media content companies see the cloud as an opportunity rather than a threat, says Chris Vollmer of the management consultancy Booz & Company. The large cheques Netflix has written for content, the prospect of new distribution markets, and signs cloud services limit piracy have all raised the industry’s hopes, he says.
. . .
The risks of the cloud cast a shadow on industry optimism, however. Sony and users of the network attached to its PlayStation console discovered the threats to security in April, when a hacking attack forced the company to suspend the service.
Furthermore, the full impact of this approach to computing on how consumers will gain access to media, and crucially how they will want to pay – if at all – is as yet only fuzzily understood. One risk, some in the industry say, is that it will accelerate the trend for consumers to rent rather than buy media and entertainment products and services. This has hurt sellers of CDs, DVDs and other physical media. Another big question facing media companies is the influence of a handful of online platform companies over their ability to reach – and charge – their customers.
For now, the scramble by these platforms for content has handed power to the media companies, though. The land grab under way in cloud computing “bodes well” for content owners’ pricing power, says Anthony DiClemente, an analyst at Barclays Capital.
One indication is the music industry’s warm reaction to Apple’s pending cloud music service, which has already prompted Amazon and Google to rush out similar services of their own, though they have yet to gain approval from the music industry. Labels and publishers hope to use Apple’s terms, which will give them 70 per cent of iCloud’s music revenues, as a template in negotiations with Amazon and Google.
Shahid Khan of MediaMorph, an industry consultancy, predicts content owners will preserve the upper hand in the cloud, and that platform owners face the bigger problem in making money. Google’s record of alienating content owners would harm its prospects, while the sums Amazon and Netflix must pay for content would make their ambitions “challenging”, he said. Only Apple, with its powerful ecosystem of iPhones, iPads and other devices, was likely to retain its bargaining power.
“Near term, especially in music, Apple sits in a Walmart-like position in terms of its digital retail market leadership,” says Mr Vollmer.
Yet even if this proves correct, Apple still faces a profound challenge to its way of doing business: the desire of consumers to access their media and personal data on any device – whether or not it bears an Apple logo.
And media companies show little willingness to let technology companies use their products to lock consumers into their services. Interoperability between online services is important, said Disney’s Mr Iger, so that consumers will be able to move their libraries from one cloud to another without difficulty.
“If someone wanted to corner a market, and a connected platform, in the long term I think it would be impractical,” says Mr Perlman, whose OnLive games service is one of many upstarts that are gambling on being able to get unrestricted access to consumers on all manner of devices.
As in other areas of consumer technology, however, it would not do to underestimate Apple.
Additional reporting by David Gelles
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
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